The Senate passed an almost $1 billion Farm Bill this week, but it faces an uncertain future in the U.S. House of Representatives.

WASHINGTON — Federal money available for bark beetle mitigation will double from $100 million to $200 million each year after the Senate agreed to authorize the Farm Bill — a gigantic piece of legislation that deals with crop subsidies, food stamps and nutrition assistance.

The Farm Bill costs $969 billion over ten years, which the Congressional Budget Office says includes $23 billion in savings. More than $750 billion of that goes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly known as food stamps. The version passed Thursday prevents lottery winners from collecting food stamps.

The biggest news out of the overhaul is the end of big farm crop subsidies, which cost $5 billion annually in checks to farmers who grew commodity crops, including corn, rice and wheat.

A handful of Colorado farmers told The Denver Post in January that they were happy to get rid of the subsidies, as long as there was a robust federally backed insurance program to protect them from pests and terrible weather. (This bill extends the federal crop insurance program and keeps some subsidies in place for small farms.)

Sen. Mark Udall’s amendment to double federal money devoted to bark beetle mitigation passed in the final version, as did his measure that ends taxpayer subsidies for political party conventions.

“Our nation’s agricultural economy supports more than 16 million jobs and accounts for billions of dolars in commerce,” Udall said, in a statement.

Sen. Michael Bennet, a member of the Senate Ag Committee, co-sponsored a provision to give landowners more incentives to enter into conservation easements, which are voluntary agreements that allow landowners to limit development on their property while retaining ownership.

The Senate version now travels to the U.S. House of Representatives, where it faces an uncertain future. News reports Thursday indicated the House Ag committee was going to start from scratch in mid-July on its own version.

“The Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) is a wholly owned Government corporation managed by the Risk Management Agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. FCIC manages the Federal crop insurance program which provides U.S. farmers and agricultural entities with crop insurance protection.”
In other words what we have here is socialism of farmers. Why shouldn’t they have to compete on the free market?

Anonymous

Farmers should not have to compete because US citizens have to eat and have to be able to pay for it. Too many folks are more than illiterate concerning the Ag portion of the economics in America.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.